BC Photo Challenge Pro Tips: Photographing Lights And Tents

When you finally arrive at your destination, far back in the bush or into the mountains, you want to be able to show people exactly what your view was like. Getting the right exposure to highlight your tent and some of the background is a great way to achieve that goal. This week, nature photographer Steve Jones shows us how to play with lights and tents.

Be sure to enter your photos of Beautiful British Columbia in BC Magazine’s Photo Challenge! There are four categories – nature, adventure, scenic and culture.

On photographing your tent during the night: “While camping, your tent can be the subject of some very interesting nighttime photos. I always enjoy looking back at the amazing places that I have been able to sleep. To take this type of a picture, you will need two headlamps. Place one headlamp inside of the tent and have the other on-hand for illuminating anything else in your shot that you would like to highlight. The camera will have no idea how to properly expose this type of a picture, so you will need to switch to full manual mode. It is a game of guess-and-check but a 30-second exposure, ISO 100 and f/8 is a reasonable starting point. On a clear night, you can use a single headlamp inside of your tent and capture the starry sky in the background. As with all night photography, you may need to use manual focus if there is not enough light for your autofocus to function correctly.”